ZapBrannigan

Not exactly. We already have in excess of 15% of pilots on reserve. Rapidly approaching legacy levels.

The reality is that SW already has long-call reserve. Scheduling most often assigns tomorrow’s trips to reserves today. That is long-call. (albeit without trip ownership it means the poor reserve has to come into domicile anyway)

What SW is lacking is dedicated SHORT call reserve. That means that you and I get re-routed, extended, and JA’d as online reserves because the company has already assigned its entire compliment of reserves to open time that they didn’t want to pay premium for.

The solution is to divide the reserve cadre into a dedicated long call (including trip ownership and allowing the reserves to choose from available trips in seniority order during the assignment call)

... and a dedicated short call who remain available (even if un-flown) to put out fires.


Yup. That’s the cost of providing trips that appeal to a majority demographic. Even though commutable trips will fly during bankers hours, they will be less efficient and would necessarily pay less. That keeps the in-domicile senior folks from bidding them. The commuter who wants to be home more might not care about monthly totals.

This is all part of growing into a big airline that offers more than just pay rates to appeal to a pilot community with a variety of different needs and desires.


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Skyward

As a commuter, I’d rather have trips that are not commutable on one end and 18 days off rather than non-productive trips and 14 days off. I can always take a nap in the sleep room at the end of a pm trip and catch the first flight out the next morning or just pull a late night on a fedex js. I’m a PM’r though, so that plan works easier than for an AM’r.

I would be in favor of some long call reserve periods, though.

Redchevron

Workin' on a draft budget.

What are the assumptions?
Commuting to OAK?
Sitting Reserve?

Is a broad-brush estimate of monthly income something we can discuss for folks like me planning for the family?

I assume the income varies a lot month-to-month...

e6bpilot

Monthly income will be approx 5k net after taxes while in training (paid min guarantee no perdiem). Once you are on the line it will vary from month but I would say the average probie probably clears 6.5k considering perdiem and extra pay here and there. If you hustle and fly extra you can earn a lot more.
Commuting costs will vary by base. OAK is by far the worst. No crash pads at all. Commuter hotels vary but I would plan on $90 a night. Good news is OAK is one month and done. All the other bases have some sort of crash pads or other arrangements.
Your first month if you are in Oakland you won’t be on reserve, you will have a line so just plan on one hotel room per trip you fly out of there.
Reserve is best done in a crash pad imo. The schedules are just too unpredictable to use hotels. Commuting to reserve is a circadian nightmare and you are best to have a place to rest that is semi permanent. Most crash pads are in the $150-200 range.
Once you are off reserve it is just whatever works for you. Most use hotels at $50-90 a night.
Preparing and bringing your own food saves money and is healthier. I pack about a meal a day (I don’t carry a big food bag, just a tote that has a built in cooler) and some healthy snacks and breakfast bars along with fruit. The rest I eat at airports and hotels or if I am downtown at local places. I budget myself $30/day on food and probably spend $10/day on prepared meals and snacks.
If you hustle, you can clear over $100k easily your first year. Second year pay is available on any open time trips. Talk to your friends for details. Best of luck.

Burton78

^^^This, right here. I want my time away from home to be as productive as possible. The last thing I want is for my trips being further diluted for the sake of commuting. I call BS on Zap as far as the non existence of commutable lines. They are there for the taking although they sometimes do take a little legwork to acquire. I have gone months commuting easily on both sides of the trip . It really just depends on where you live and how the flights to your home work out. YMMV


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RJSAviator76

I wouldn't mind "long call" in line with reserve trip ownership. In other words, if Scheduling awards a trip in DOT for the next day, and the pilot chooses to "own" the awarded trip, there's your "long call."

Also, as I said many times before, I'd like to see reserve blocks tradeable in ELITT.

ZapBrannigan

E6B, what kind of tote with built in cooler do you use?


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e6bpilot

http://www.luggageworks.com/aurora-c...ote-combo.html

It makes a good tote and a not so great cooler. There are other products out there that look like they work better but I haven’t tried any of them. I can get three meals, some fruit, and an ice bag and maybe a couple yogurts in the cooler part.

WHACKMASTER

Exactly! The last thing I ever want to see on property is inefficient trips. They’re there now somewhat, but I don’t want our B737 lines to look like they do at UAL, AA, etc (same credit but 2-3 mores days of work).

This coming from someone who commutes off and on.

HwkrPlt

Just for giggles, can a SWA F/O with enough seniority to hold a line post one of their schedules? I am curious to see what kind of flying someone actually does there.